Pumi language

Pumi
Primi
Spoken in People's Republic of China
Region Sichuan, Yunnan
Ethnicity Pumi
Native speakers 54,000  (1999)
Language family
Writing system none
Language codes
ISO 639-3 either:
pmi – Northern Pumi
pmj – Southern Pumi

The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi) is a Tibeto-Burman language used by the Pumi people, an ethnic group from Yunnan, China.[1][2] Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli. There are two branches of Pumi (southern and northern), and they are not mutually intelligible.

In some areas Pumi used the Tibetan script, mainly for religious purposes, although gradually it fell into disuse. A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.

Contents

Sounds

Grammar

Example

Pumi English
Tèr gwéjè dzwán thèr phxèungphxàr sì.
Timitae llìnggwe zreungzrun stìng.		 He have broken several hammers.
This man is crying and shouting all the time.

References

  1. ^ Ding, Picus S. 2003. Prinmi: a sketch of Niuwozi. In Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages, pp. 588-601. London: Routledge Press.
  2. ^ Lu, S. 2001. Dialectal Studies of the Pumi Language. Beijing: Nationalities Press.